When I was younger I was very opinionated about art. And then, I realized that I kind of recognized this pattern where the things that I was vehemently of pissed off about, I would end up loving them two years later. So I just tried to mellow out. Like there's art that I think is pretty silly, but it doesn't get under my skin like it used to.

Joe Bradley

Categorized in : Thinking Art Silly

A good painting has to do about 12 things at once.

Joe Bradley

painting

I can only think of a handful of artists that can make a funny painting or a funny sculpture without it feeling coined in someway.

Joe Bradley

artist feelings thinking

Paintings exist in the present tense, yet somehow, because of how it's structured, it can move backwards through time as well.

Joe Bradley

rough-times painting moving

A picture can be funny and also weep inducing. One cries for many reasons. The state of weeping, for me, is induced by recognition of a rarified level of integration - thinking about what must it have taken to reach that integration.

Joe Bradley

levels taken thinking

I think that painting relates very neatly to inner travel and the exploration of inner worlds. With painting, I always get the impression that you're sort of entering into a shared space.

Joe Bradley

entering space thinking

When there's a painting in the room, my eye goes right to it. It's like if you go into a bar and there's a television on, you can't take your eyes off the television. Paintings have that effect on me. It's where my eye settles.

Joe Bradley

bars eye television

I think you do kind of slip into a trance when you look at a painting. At least I do.

Joe Bradley

painting looks thinking

You have the 20th century wrapping up and everything is moving at this breakneck speed? And then, painting is still walking. It's just a very human activity that takes time.

Joe Bradley

wrapping-up painting moving

There are different kinds of concentration required to make a painting, different kinds of being present.

Joe Bradley

painting different kind

I think, with abstraction, it's easy to fall into a sort of pastiche.

Joe Bradley

easy fall thinking

The era of television in which I grew up was much simpler than now. Its conventions were quite transparent and fun to think about. Who could ever remember the plot of those shows?

Joe Bradley

plot fun thinking

Painting can also be too earnest at times and that's a drag. You don't want to go in that direction either. It should be holistic. It should represent the whole of your personality, I guess, so if somebody is a sincere painter or an ironic painter, then they're just bullshitting the audience and presenting only an idealized version of themselves.

Joe Bradley

ironic personality want

The thing is that the money issue looms so large in art now. And it has absolutely nothing to do with art. If you're painting goes for ten grand or a hundred grand, it doesn't make painting any easier. And it doesn't make the painting any better if it goes for a hundred grand.

Joe Bradley

painting issues art

There's art that I think is pretty silly, but it doesn't get under my skin like it used to.

Joe Bradley

silly art thinking

I remember looking at books when I was in high school, but I don't think I really stood in front of a genuine painting or sculpture until I was out of high school.

Joe Bradley

book school thinking

I don't really get excited about good things happening to me.

Joe Bradley

happenings excited good-things

I think that time moves slower in painting. And maybe that accounts for a lot of the anxiety around painting in the last 40 or 50 years.

Joe Bradley

years moving thinking

Money issue looms so large in art now. And it has absolutely nothing to do with art.

Joe Bradley

absolutely-nothing issues art

I love looking at sculpture, but there's some sort of spell that's broken with it.

Joe Bradley

spells sculpture broken

Technology's always changing. There was a time where oil painting was a new technology. That changed painting.

Joe Bradley

painting oil technology